{"id":4985,"date":"2009-11-14T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2009-11-14T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=4985"},"modified":"2012-02-02T07:01:18","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T12:01:18","slug":"people-and-turbines-dont-mix-ontario-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2009\/people-and-turbines-dont-mix-ontario-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Textbook Wind Turbine Syndrome in Ontario (Canada)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00b7<\/span>
\n“It was another restless night in a long string of interrupted sleep. Amaranth\u2019s Leo Mendonca didn\u2019t feel quite right, like something was wrong, but he didn\u2019t know what, or why.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Leo<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

“When he got out of bed, he was struck by a wave of nausea. He made his way out to the kitchen of the 8th Line home for a drink of water, but that didn\u2019t calm his stomach.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Thinking some fresh air may do the trick, he headed out to the garden. There, he looked up and saw what he now believes is the source of his troubles . . . an industrial-sized wind turbine about 600 metres away, and many more within sight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I couldn\u2019t function or leave the house,’ he says, suggesting the feeling that overwhelmed him that May morning had been building for months. ‘I gave up. I had a breakdown. . . . I was afraid to be alone.’\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Editor’s note:\u00a0 <\/em>Dear Leo, see Your Guide to Wind Turbine Syndrome.com<\/a> for a pathophysiological explanation of what’s happening to you.\u00a0 Be sure to show this to your doctor.\u00a0 Tell him (her)\u00a0to buy Pierpont’s book when it comes out.\u00a0 <\/em>Dr. Pierpont explains it all in painstaking detail—yes, including your panic, anxiety, breakdown, and nausea.\u00a0 You, too, need to read the book.\u00a0 At least you will learn what’s going on.\u00a0 You’ve got textbook WTS.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

CanWEA pretends it doesn’t know what’s going on (\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it\u201d—Upton Sinclair),\u00a0and this reporter seems clueless.\u00a0 But you don’t need to be.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb\u00bb<\/span><\/p>\n

—Richard Vivian, The Orangeville Banner<\/a> (11\/12\/09)<\/p>\n

It was another restless night in a long string of interrupted sleep. Amaranth\u2019s Leo Mendonca didn\u2019t feel quite right, like something was wrong, but he didn\u2019t know what, or why.<\/p>\n

When he got out of bed, he was struck by a wave of nausea. He made his way out to the kitchen of the 8th Line home for a drink of water, but that didn\u2019t calm his stomach.<\/p>\n

Thinking some fresh air may do the trick, he headed out to the garden. There, he looked up and saw what he now believes is the source of his troubles . . . an industrial-sized wind turbine about 600 metres away, and many more within sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t function or leave the house,\u201d he says, suggesting the feeling that overwhelmed him that May morning had been building for months. \u201cI gave up. I had a breakdown. . . . I was afraid to be alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that fear, he acknowledges, stemmed from not knowing what was causing him to feel as he did. At the time, he didn\u2019t know others living near turbines reported similar experiences.<\/p>\n

The more anecdotal tales he hears, the more he\u2019s convinced the turbines are to blame for the persistent level of anxiety he feels, as do his wife, Margarida, and daughter, Christina, 21.<\/p>\n

Theirs is one of 17 households to lodge a noise, sleep disturbance or loss of enjoyment complaint against the Melancthon EcoPower Centre since 2006.<\/p>\n

The majority of neighbours \u2014 there are about 300 \u2014 haven\u2019t expressed any concern about how the turbines are impacting their life, if at all.<\/p>\n

Strong opinions abound in the debate about whether industrial wind turbines actually affect the health of those living nearby. The wind energy industry will have you believe a direct link hasn\u2019t been drawn between health symptoms and turbines, and therefore there isn\u2019t one.<\/p>\n

Yet people continue to report a litany of symptoms \u2014 from headaches and nausea to sleeplessness, irritation, a ringing in the ears and more \u2014 they say started when the turbines were turned on.<\/p>\n

So what does the science say? There appears to be no definitive answers on either side of the discussion. Nonetheless, Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) believes the argument is lopsided in his industry\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say it\u2019s quite conclusively demonstrated in the peer-reviewed scientific literature that there\u2019s no causal linkage that\u2019s been found between sounds from wind turbines and human health,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have to take these concerns seriously and I don\u2019t think we are doubting the integrity of people who are saying they are experiencing these symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are saying is that they are drawing a linkage between those symptoms and the turbines, and . . . we haven\u2019t been able to find anything that would indicate what could be a causal basis for that linkage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Direct medical line or not \u2014 nobody The Banner spoke with has documentation to unequivocally correlate their reported symptoms to turbines \u2014 a small percentage of people living near turbines around the world have reported symptoms similar to those experienced by some locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach day is a struggle with excessive stress, anxiety, depression, headaches, and ear and stomach problems,\u201d says Roger Oliviera, who lives on Seventh Line in Melancthon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rarely get a full night\u2019s sleep, and have become dependent on prescribed sleeping pills to fall asleep. The sound comes right through my walls, I can no longer open my windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says his symptoms became \u201cvery clear and persistent\u201d about a month after turbines became active. His house is surrounded on all four sides, on adjacent properties. The closest turbine is about 480 metres away and the farthest about 600 metres.<\/p>\n

He too has filed complaints against the wind farm, which he firmly believes is to blame for his sleeplessness and anxiety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you look at people and the chronologies they\u2019ve put together in terms of when they\u2019re being affected by the noise . . . the physical evidence is there. I don\u2019t doubt them, don\u2019t doubt them for a minute,\u201d Amaranth Mayor Don MacIver says of health complaints from some of the turbine\u2019s neighbours.<\/p>\n

MacIver is an atmospheric scientist with Environment Canada \u2014 he does not speak on behalf of his employer \u2014 and recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize for his participation in the team of scientists who contributed to the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no direct linkage in terms of \u2018all the turbines are turning at full power and therefore they get the maximum exposure.\u2019 . . . It\u2019s so intermittent, that it\u2019s driving them nuts,\u201d the mayor says. \u201cIt\u2019s not as if it\u2019s a continuous hum from a refrigerator and you get used to it, or a water pump. It\u2019s intermittent spiking that is causing them tremendous disruption in their lives and their sleep patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amaranth is home to 22 industrial wind turbines \u2014 part of Canadian Hydro Development\u2019s (CHD) Melancthon EcoPower Centre, which has 133 turbines in all. The rest are in Melancthon.<\/p>\n

CHD has a 20-year contract with the province to supply 199.5 MW of electricity annually \u2014 enough to supply more than 70,000 households with power.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the few complaints that we\u2019ve had relate simply to the noise level and not necessarily to health effects,\u201d Scott Hossie, CHD\u2019s Ontario environmental manager, says of the wind farm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should differentiate, someone who has a concern about noise, it isn\u2019t by necessity a health issue. When it comes to sound coming from the turbines, different people have different expectations about the sound level that is acceptable at their home or at their property line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2006, the MOE has received about 400 noise and loss of enjoyment of property complaints related to the Melancthon EcoPower Centre, from 17 households.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality of sound does, absolutely does, cause some annoyance \u2014 there\u2019s no doubt about that \u2014 and stress for certain people,\u201d acknowledges Dr. Nicola Mercer, medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH). \u201cThat annoyance and stress affects people differently. Some people can live near wind farms and not report any stress or sleep disturbances or annoyances related to the wind farms.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to directly connect any particular influencing factor to sleep disturbance, Mercer adds, which makes it hard for people to prove a relationship, if there is one, between their symptoms and the turbines. The issue has been studied many times, in other countries, without those particular dots being connected, the doctor notes.<\/p>\n

MacIver isn\u2019t satisfied with the studies that have been done to-date, particularly when it comes to low frequency noise and the effect on people with prolonged exposure.<\/p>\n

His municipality is one of many across Ontario that have repeatedly asked the provincial government to take a thorough look at potential health impacts before any more wind farms are allowed to go up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are from different countries and they\u2019re from different situations,\u201d MacIver says of the studies referred to by Mercer and Hornung.<\/p>\n

Traditional wind farms consist of hundreds of turbines constructed on a single property. MacIver describes the ones going up in Ontario as \u201cpimples on the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you design a wind farm . . . that\u2019s spread out all over the place, you\u2019re increasing exposure to people. . . . Now the effects are starting to come out much more,\u201d he says. \u201cThe bottom line conclusion is quite simple \u2014 people and turbines don\u2019t mix.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00b7 “It was another restless night in a long string of interrupted sleep. Amaranth\u2019s Leo Mendonca didn\u2019t feel quite right, like something was wrong, but he didn\u2019t know what, or why. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[166],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}